Until last night my knowledge of Arnold Bax was limited to two
sources: the Chandos recordings of his tone poems performed by the
Ulster Orchestra under the direction of Bryden Thomson; and Ken
Russell's docudrama The Secret Life of Arnold Bax
(with Russell himself as Bax and Glenda Jackson as Harriet Cohen, his
second wife and champion of his piano music), when it was broadcast on
the Ovation Channel. I had no idea of either the abundance or the
richness of his chamber music repertoire.
Introducing last
night's Faculty Artist Series concert at the San Francisco Conservatory
of Music, violist Paul Hersh as much as admitted to having little more
than a passing knowledge of Bax. However, he had a student, clarinetist
Brenden Guy, who needed a sponsor for an Independent Study project
about Bax; and Hersh accepted that responsibility. The concert was
thus, in many ways, a presentation of the results of that project,
introducing each of the four works on the program with background
knowledge about Bax. The works preceding the intermission were written
in his twenties, and those following the intermission were written as he
was approaching and then turning into his fifties.
This list of Bax' compositions on his Wikipedia page
is, indeed, prodigiously long; and the chamber music section is
impressive not only for the size of its share but also for the
instrumental combinations he explored. The two works in the first half
were both trios: a single-movement work for piano, violin, and viola,
which was one of his earliest compositions, and the Elegiac Trio
for flute, viola, and harp. Note the use of the viola (performed by
Hersh last night) in both of these trios. In addition to three works
for viola and piano (the earliest of which comes from about the same
time as the early trio), Bax also composed a "Fantasy Sonata" for harp
and viola. Both of these instruments assumed very significant positions
in the Bax canon.
In introducing the single-movement trio, Hersh
cited an observation by Ralph Vaughan Williams about the first works of
young composers tending to be too long because they think they have so
much to say. This composition cannot be faulted for being too long;
but Bax certainly crammed more themes into it than one would expect from
the usual sonata-form movement. On the other hand one would not expect
such a conventional form to be rudely interrupted in mid-course by a
waltz that is almost mocking its own indulgence in sentimentality. In
that context the decision to structure the coda as a fugue almost comes
across as an apology for bad manners. The point is that, early as it
may have been, this trio was very much the sound of an original voice
with great spirit; and Hersh, along with pianist Teresa Yu and
violinist Philip Brezina, made sure that those of us on the audience
site were caught up in that spirit.
The Elegiac Trio was
completed in 1916. Observing the strong influence that life in Ireland
had on Bax' development, Hersh suggested that the elegiac mood may have
been intended as a reflection on the Easter Uprising. If so, then I
would suggest that it has less to do with those who actively engaged in
the Uprising and more to do with what poet and playwright Arthur
Williams once called "people who got in the way." The sound of the harp
evokes the mundanity of Irish life, rather than the political
struggles; and the sadness of the work seems directed at those who
tried (often unsuccessfully) to go about their lives while others were
caught up in "the cause."
Chamber music lovers will be quick to
recognize that the combination of harp, flute, and viola is the same one
used by Claude Debussy in his second sonata. This sonata was completed
in 1915. My guess is that Bax was unaware of it and not influenced by
it. While some of the interplay, particularly between flute and viola,
triggers memories of Debussy, the text for harp has a decidedly
individual rhetoric. For this performance Hersh was joined by faculty
colleagues Timothy Day on flute and Emily Laurance on harp. Once again,
the music was all about spirit; and these performers recognized and
captured that sense of elegy that gave the work its title.
Since
Guy is a clarinetist, the late works for the second half of the program
were selected to illustrate Bax' writing for this instrument, a D major
sonata for clarinet and piano from 1934 and a nonet, completed in 1930,
for string quartet, bass, wind trio (flute, oboe, and clarinet), and
harp. Both are two-movement compositions; and both begin with a Molto
moderato movement followed by a faster pace (Vivace for the sonata and
Allegro for the nonet). In many ways the nonet reflected the same
richness of orchestration that Bax brought to his tone poems but
distilled it down to what he may have felt was the bare minimum for the
colors he sought. (He did omit any use of brass or percussion.) Beyond
any questions of formal structure, the work is very much an interplay
of "between" and "among" for this particular selection of instruments.
Thus, we have relationships between strings and winds that emerge from
the "string quartet relationship" of the strings and the "wind trio"
relationship of the winds. In this setting the bass serves somewhat as a
reinforcing continuo, while the harp speaks in an independent voice
that colors the emerging harmonies. An instrumental collection of this
size and variation is best coordinated by a conductor, and Andrew
Whitfield did an excellent job in leading the all-student performing
ensemble.
The clarinet sonata was written about four years after
the nonet was completed. While it was the first of the two works to be
performed in the second half of the program, when compared with the
nonet it gives some impression that, having completed the earlier work,
Bax felt he still had things for the clarinet to say. This is
particularly true of the Vivace movement, which almost seems to emerge
from the clarinet part for Allegro of the nonet. Here one might make a
case that Bax may have been exposed to Debussy, specifically through the
latter's 1910 rhapsody for clarinet in the version with piano
accompaniment. Like Debussy, Bax recognized the scope of sonic
coloration that a clarinet commands; and even if only two instruments
are involved, this is very much a work of instrumental color. However,
while many of Bax' rhetorical devices suggest Debussy, it may be just as
likely that he came to those devices through his own invention.
Accompanied by student pianist Hsueh-Ching Chen, Guy provided a reading
of the sonata that captured both the introspective and spirited sides of
the score. This was definitely an Independent Study project that
deserved the light of a public performance.
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